


nothing quite as sweet as your smile

by natodiangelo



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Getting Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 14:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13320216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natodiangelo/pseuds/natodiangelo
Summary: Standing behind the register is probably the most beautiful girl Hitoka’s ever seen. Long black hair like obsidian. Eyes gray as steel but warm as a hearth. Skin clear and pale except for one dark beauty mark just to the side of her soft, pale pink lips.“Can I take your order?” She asks again, and her voice is like honey. Hitoka thinks she might faint.





	nothing quite as sweet as your smile

**Author's Note:**

> this is for [sweetferretxd](http://sweetferretxd.tumblr.com/) for the hq writers exchange!!! im so sorry this is so late but i hope you like it!!!!

Hitoka is  _cold_.

She’s wearing two sweaters  _and_  her large winter coat and the wind still rips right through them. Her gloves – Shouyou’s gloves, actually, that she borrowed from him before leaving that morning – barely do anything to warm her poor fingers, even shoved as deep into her coat pocket as possible.

She reiterates; she’s  _cold._

It’s already halfway through December, however, so she shouldn’t be surprised. The rest of the week is supposed to be the same, she knows, and the dejected sigh she heaves comes out in a cloud of white.

She needs something to warm her up before her first class, she decides. Or at least a place to pass the time that doesn’t make her feel like she might become a Hitoka-popsicle.

It’s still early, but she manages to find a coffee shop that’s open. When she steps inside, it’s like heaven; she takes a deep breath of the warm air and finally pulls her hands out of her pockets.

There’s a few people in line, but she doesn’t mind the wait. She settles in behind them and looks up at the menu to decide her order.

She hasn’t quite made a decision when she makes it to the counter, still staring up at the menu overhead as though it might make the decision for her.

“Can I take your order?” The person behind the register asks, and Hitoka finally pulls her gaze away.

“Yeah, can I…”

She freezes.

Not literally, considering how warm the store is, but.

She freezes.

Standing behind the register is probably the most beautiful girl Hitoka’s ever seen. Long black hair like obsidian. Eyes gray as steel but warm as a hearth. Skin clear and pale except for one dark beauty mark just to the side of her soft, pale pink lips.

Hitoka is probably gawking in a horribly rude way, and she’s probably also red as a tomato at this point, but the girl just laughs sweetly.

“Can I take your order?” She asks again, and her voice is like honey. Hitoka thinks she might faint.

“C-can I, um- peppermint mocha?”

“Can do.” The girl – Kiyoko, Hitoka reads off of her name tag before she turns around – smiles and goes off to make her drink.

Hitoka glances carefully behind her. No one. She sighs and slumps against the counter, one hand coming up to clutch over her still quickly beating heart.

Then, all at once, she realizes that she, also, has a physical form, and that it probably doesn’t look that good right now. Her hands fly up to her hair, running her fingers through it to make sure it isn’t sticking up or out weirdly. She tugs on the hems of her layers to straighten out where they had bunched up and created lumps. She worrying over whether she should have put makeup on when Kiyoko comes back.

“Here you go,” Kiyoko says, sliding the cup across the counter. “Be careful, it’s hot.”

 _Not as hot as you,_  Hitoka thinks, and it just makes her blush even more. She pulls out her wallet and tries not to stare too hard when she passes the money to Kiyoko – decides it’s safer to just focus on her mocha.

Only to freeze again.

Because on the side of the cup, written in carefully neat handwriting, is a number, a name, and a heart. She stares at it for a minute, and if she was paying attention she would realize that Kiyoko was watching her with a smile, change ready to be handed back, but she isn’t paying attention.

Maybe, Hitoka thinks, maybe she’s in heaven. Maybe on her way here she got ran over, or had a heart attack, or spontaneously combusted, and now she’s in heaven. Cute girl heaven. Coffee shop heaven.

Because – because things like this don’t happen to her. They happen to  _cute_ girls, and as much as Shouyou tries to assure her that she’s cute, she can’t trust his judgement. He doesn’t even  _like_  girls. And Hitoka very,  _very_  much likes girls, and she’s seen cute girls, and she doesn’t look like them.

But. There’s a number on the cup she’s holding and Kiyoko is still smiling at her and she feels like she could float away.

Hitoka blinks and all at once realizes that she’s just been  _standing_ there. She scrambles to grab her change and put away her wallet and she might have dropped her receipt but she was just going to throw it away anyways.

“I hope you have a good day,” Kiyoko says, and then, catching Hitoka completely off guard, she winks.

She  _winks._

Hitoka is floored. She thinks she said  _you, too_  or  _thank you_  or  _wow you’re beautiful_  but she isn’t sure. Then, she gives Kiyoko the biggest smile she can muster and leaves the store.

 

Hitoka makes herself to go class, but she doesn’t focus at all. She doodles on the edge of her notebook – hearts and two faces that  _might_  be herself and Kiyoko and yeah, a love umbrella with their names but she erases it before anyone can see. She tries to take notes during her lecture, but Kiyoko’s face keeps coming up in her mind, making Hitoka’s heart do weird things in her chest. She practically runs home when she’s done with her classes for the day.

She runs up the stairs and unlocks the door with shaky hands, coffee cup tucked into her elbow. As soon as it opens she goes in, closing it behind her and leaning up against it, trying to catch her breath.

“Hitoka!”

She looks up to see Shouyou sitting on the couch, blanket tight around his shoulders and laptop balanced on his lap. She runs over and sits down next to him, shoving the cup in his face.

“Shouyou!”

“What- I can’t see, what is it-“ He grabs the cup from her. “It’s empty!”

“I know, but- look!”

He turns the cup around and finally sees It. He looks at her with wide eyes.

“You…?”

“Yeah…!”

“Okay, okay, tell me what happened!”

 

_Hey, is this Kiyoko? You wrote your number on-_

_-delete draft?-_

_-yes-_

_Hi, this is Yachi Hitoka, you made my coffee-_

_-delete draft?-_

_-yes-_

_Is this Kiyoko Shimizu? This is Yachi Hitoka, you-_

_-delete draft?-_

_-yes-_

_Hey kiyoko ur really cute???_

_-delete draft?-_

_-yes-_

_Is this Kiyoko? I’m Yachi Hitoka, from the coffee shop this-_

_-delete draft?-_

_-yes-_

 

“What do I do?” Hitoka asks, looking dejectedly at her phone.

“What do you mean? Obviously you call her!”

Shouyou nudges her with his foot. They’re both laying on his bed, having moved there after the couch proved to be too small for this kind of situation. The heater is on and the room is comfortably warm, but Hitoka can’t fully appreciate it right now.

“I can’t just call her!” She says, locking her phone and setting it down on her stomach. “She doesn’t know the number so she probably won’t even answer.”

“She’s probably been waiting all day for a call from you. She’ll definitely answer!”

“But even if she does, what do I say? I made a fool of myself earlier! She probably regrets writing her number down.”

“I can guarantee you that she doesn’t regret it. But you  _will_  regret it if you don’t call.”

He has a point, but she just sighs.

“Anyways, weren’t you going to text her first? What did you say?”

“Nothing yet… Everything I thought of just felt too awkward.”

“Let me see.” Shouyou grabs her phone, and she’s too slow to grab it from his hands. She rolls over and reaches for it, but he holds it above his head, unlocking it.

“Shouyou!”

“You put a heart next to her name?” Shouyou asks, and Hitoka hides her face in the blanket. “That’s so cute, Hitoka.”

She just buries her face even deeper in the bedding. Shouyou is quiet for a minute, and when she looks up, he’s typing on her phone.

“Shouyou, you better not say anything embarrassing!”

He sticks his tongue out at her before handing the phone back. “I’m not that mean!”

She quickly grabs it and looks down at the screen.

_hey is this Kiyoko? I’m Yachi Hitoka! you gave me your number this morning_

“…Okay, that isn’t as bad as I expected.”

Shouyou shakes his head. “No faith.”

“I was there when you asked Kageyama out, you know.” She gives him a look. “It doesn’t exactly put me at ease.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

She blinks. “…That’s true.”

Shouyou repeats, “No faith.”

She sighs, taking one last glance at her phone before locking the screen. “I really hope this works.”

“It will,” Shouyou assures her. “There’s no way she could resist your charm.”

“I hope you’re right.”

 

Kiyoko responds later that night.

Hitoka’s just stepped out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel through her damp hair, when Shouyou runs up, shoving her phone in her face.

“Hitoka!”

“What?” She asks, but Shouyou is already explaining.

“She replied!”

Hitoka’s heart skips a beat. “She did?”

“Open it!” He pushes the phone into her hands. “I want to see what she said.”

She unlocks the phone.

> _T_ _his is Kiyoko. I’m glad you messaged me <3_

Shouyou grins at her. “What did I say?”

She only barely hears him, however, unable to pull her eyes away from the message.

_< 3_

_< 3_

_< 3_

“What’re you gonna say back?” Shouyou asks, and she realizes all at once that in order to talk to this cute girl she has to actually  _talk to this cute girl_.

“I have no idea.” She says honestly.

Shouyou takes her phone once again. “Leave it to me!”

 

> Hitoka:  _I’m glad I messaged you too_
> 
> Hitoka:  _do you work tomorrow??_
> 
> Kiyoko:  _Yes, I start at 7_
> 
> Kiyoko:  _I might just have a break at 9:30 if that works for you…_
> 
> Hitoka:  _It does! I’ll see you then!_
> 
> Kiyoko:  _< 3_

 

Hitoka’s been awake since six.

Not by her own volition, of course – nerves had woken her, stomach churning and chest tight. It’d been easier to simply get up than attempt sleep again, so she did.

Now, at half past eight, she’s thankful that Kiyoko works at a coffee shop.

She’s in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror and thanking whatever gods are out there that she doesn’t have bags under her eyes. She’s been trying to tame her hair into something presentable for the better part of a half hour, and she’s about ready to give up regardless.

She’s still incredibly nervous. Of course she is – she’s only been on a handful of dates in her life, and none of those ever turned into anything more serious.

(One of them was with Shouyou, back when they were confused teenagers and thought that perhaps they could work together. It makes her laugh to think back on it, since they both realized that they really don’t like the opposite gender.)

And Kiyoko – Kiyoko’s  _gorgeous._  Magnificent. The most beautiful person Hitoka’s ever seen, probably. Back in the day Kiyoko would probably be revered as a god, someone blessed by Aphrodite herself. Wars would be started over her.

Or something like that.

And it’s not that Hitoka thinks herself  _unattractive_  – she knows that she’s not ugly, at least, knows that people could look at her and think,  _oh, she’s kinda cute._  But she’s not  _breathtaking_ , or  _head turning_ , or any other word that could describe most of the girls she’s seen but mostly Kiyoko.

So, she’s nervous. Nervous and more than a little out of her element as she opens her makeup bag and begins to apply lipstick.

There’s a knock on the door that makes her jump, and then Shouyou calls through the door, “Hitoka, are you almost done in there?”

“Oh!” She begins to quickly shove everything back in her bag. “Yeah, sorry, just a minute.”

When she opens the door, Shouyou’s standing there in just a t-shirt and his underwear. He takes one look at her and grins.

“Hitoka! You look so cute!”

She blushes. “You think so?”

“I  _know_  so,” He says, “And you know what else I know? Kiyoko’s gonna  _die_  when she sees you.”

“I hope so…”

“Now, watch out or I’m gonna pee myself.“ Shouyou pushes past her into the bathroom and shuts the door, and she laughs.

 

Kiyoko, as it turns out,  _doesn’t_  die, but she does blush and smile and make Hitoka feel generally weak in the knees. The date goes well, as far as she can tell. They talk about their life and interests and Hitoka only stutters a handful of times, which she takes as an achievement.

When she gets home she can’t stop smiling. She hums as she washes the fishes and tidies up the shared space, and actually starts singing when she flops back on her bed and pulls out her phone.

When she looks at her messages, however, she falls silent.

> Kiyoko:  _I had a lot of fun today!_
> 
> Kiyoko:  _We should do that again sometime soon!_
> 
> Hitoka:  _I might be free for lunch tomorrow? 1-ish?_
> 
> Kiyoko:  _sounds perfect <3_


End file.
